Fade Into Me

Chapter 21

Dylan

We've been back a week and her nightmares or flashbacks, whatever you want to call them are happening every night.

The first night back, I waited for her to fall asleep and I ended up falling asleep, as well. I woke up to her crying in her sleep.

I held her in my arms, comforting her until she fell back to sleep. The night after that it happened again. By the third night, I packed her bags and brought her to my place. If I slept in that small bed of hers one more night, I might just die from soreness.

She protested and insisted I didn't need to stay, but I would have none of it. I want to be with her every night. I want to comfort her and assure her that everything is going to be alright.

I asked her if it has always been like that, but she shook her head and said no. It makes me wonder if I'm the reason...

"Don't you ever think that," she said.

"But you said..."

She shook her head fiercely. "The reason is me, Dyl. Me. Not you," she said.

"Why?"

"Because for the first time, I finally acknowledged the fact that I hate what happened. That I'm angry at everything that happened to me and my mom," she explained.

I hugged her to me. "It's going to get better. I just know it," I said

She nodded against me. "I know. I trust you," she said.

Katherine

"I can't tell you what to do," Dr. Harper said.

"I'm in constant battle with myself. I feel so guilty because everyday I'm with him, I'm lying to him. But I'm scared of what telling the truth will do. I'm torn. I think that's why I keep having nightmares about my past. My guilt is amplifying my fears and my anger due to my past."

"Don't you think it would be best if he heard the truth from you?" She asked. "You said it yourself before, you can't keep secrets hidden forever," she said.

The card that was sent to me came to mind.

Someone who knows who I really am is out there.

"I don't want to lose him," I said.

"Do you trust him?"

I nodded. "Of course I do."

"Do you believe you he loves you?"

"More than anything," I said.

"Then why do you think he'll leave you once you tell him the truth?"

"Because how can he look at me and not remember what my family did to his?"

"But you're forgetting something. You're a victim in all of this. You were an innocent child."

"That doesn't change who my father is," I said.

She nodded. "It all goes back to your father and what he has done. We need to find a way for you to separate and understand that you are your own person. His sins are his own and not your burden to carry. I really want you to keep remembering that every time you start to feel resentment about the fact that your father had made mistakes and chosen a path to destruction," she said.